ABSTRACT
This chapter provides in-depth understanding of the features of French gastronomy and the unique association that French consumers attach to food and wellbeing. It identifies the specificities as well as considers the explanatory factors for the French consumers’ approach to cuisine and wellbeing. The chapter reviews the history of French gastronomy and its institutionalization as a specific field. It investigates the unique approach of French consumers to food and wellbeing as well as the social and cultural dimensions associated with gastronomy. Gastronomy increasingly emerged as the vanguard of culinary art as French cuisine gained from lucid formalized codes and practices early on, which proved an unequivocal advantage in the bid for culinary authority. Haute cuisine was originally meant to serve the court and the aristocracy. A new class of consumers that enjoyed rich fine food emerged, which drew from the ancient practices of fine dining.
